The lesson: Surround yourself with symbols of insight if you want to work smarter. If that means sitting under a bare light bulb while your coworkers question your sanity, so be it.

Seeing light bulbs might foster bright ideas, scientists now find. The concept that reaching an insight is much like shining a light into a dark place goes back to at least Plato. It was this ...

The incandescent bulb, that cartoon symbol for a bright idea, has a future that is dimming fast. The latest bright idea is to ban the bulbs. Because of their high use of electricity compared to ...